Bord Gáis has slapped Irish households with a 13.5% rise in electricity bills and a 12% hike in standing charges—even as the company pockets massive profits.
In the first half of 2025 the company raked in €39 million in profit. Its parent company posted a staggering €663 million profit for the first half of 2025. Last year, Bord Gáis made €75 million in profit.
Fr Peter McVerry blasted the system that allows this profiteering.
“Capitalism is maximising for companies and maximising the return to shareholders. I think capitalism needs to have a much greater social conscience.”
He warned that leaders don’t seem to grasp the reality:
“There are a lot of people out there struggling. I’m not sure that the decision makers understand that.”
According to Social Justice Ireland (STI), families are at breaking point as the cost of basics—electricity, food, gas—now outstrips family incomes.
“No amount of budgeting is going to keep you within your spending limits. Just putting on the heat or switching on the light is becoming unaffordable,” says Susanne Rogers of STI.
She added that while inflation has slowed, prices aren’t falling. “Every household in the country has seen bills skyrocket. More will have to be done than simply knocking money off bills.”
The Society of St Vincent de Paul said the latest increases are “of real concern” and urged the Government to raise the fuel allowance and extend it to families on the Working Family Payment.
For Fr McVerry, immediate support for struggling households is essential:
“Whether it’s an extra social welfare payment or another supplementary income, families must be guaranteed the basics of living.”
Campaigners are united: there is no morality in energy giants squeezing struggling families while celebrating record profits. As Roosevelt warned nearly a century ago, heedless self-interest is not only bad morals—it’s bad economics.
The price hike:
13.5% – electricity price hike
by Bord Gáis
12% – increase in standing charges
€75 million – Bord Gáis profit
last year
€39 million – profit in just the first half of 2025
€663 million – profit of Bord Gáis parent company in first half of 2025
